Stellaris

The 4.5.3 Cygnus open beta is on the stellaris_test branch, mostly bugfixes to habitability, districts and subject jobs. Multiplayer desync checks now compare every colony, fleet, ship and country. Live release is expected next Wednesday.

• —Betharian Processing, Exotic Gas Capture, Rare Crystal Extraction and Volatile Motes Harvesting are limited to one per planet.
• —Occupied subject colonies no longer produce job resources for their overlord; subject jobs scale with workforce rather than pop count.
• —Clients can now downgrade Deep Space Citadels without causing an out-of-sync.
• —Habitability display no longer caps at 125 percent for species that reach 175 or 250.

Paradox set 23 November as the release date for Stellaris: Willpower and the 4.6 'Corona Borealis' update, and used the dev diary to detail Galactic Halls, Gestalt interaction with Ideologies and the Lost Makers Machine origin.

• —Galactic Halls are megastructures unlocked through Ideology and Ideological Strength; they can be relocated for some Energy, with a 10 year cooldown.
• —Gestalt Pops cannot be converted directly; foreign Reach causes Deviancy, which lowers Ideological Strength, and Hive Minds and Machines use Instincts or Directives.
• —Ethical Buildings can be upgraded twice, and Ideological Beacons on Starbases add Unity and Ideological Push.
• —Lost Makers is a Machine Intelligence-only Origin tied to a Precursor and can generate a special Ideology at the end.

The 4.5 'Cygnus' open beta is closing and the update is expected on Tuesday 22 September. Pop groups are no longer split by ethics or faction, a change Paradox flags in capitals as breaking save compatibility.

• —Exclusive Harvesting Rights was pulled from 4.5 for more balancing after beta feedback.
• —New Fleet Doctrine, Weapon Preference and Defense Preference policies steer the auto-designer for players and AI alike.
• —Federations can pass laws granting members free Commercial Pacts or Research Agreements, and Trade Leagues get the pacts automatically.
• —Several multiplayer out-of-sync fixes are in, including one triggered by colonizing with a designation selected. Paradox says 4.5 has more bugfix entries than 2.0.2 and 3.0.1 combined.